1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of computer pointing devices and more particularly to a system and method for controlling the operation of certain pointing devices, such as graphics tablets. A predominant current usage of the present inventive automatic mapping method and apparatus is in the automatic mapping of a single pointing device to a plurality of display devices.
2. Description of the Background Art
Pointing devices used in computing are often classified generally as either relative or absolute pointing devices. Mice, track balls, and the like, are usually best used as relative devices, such that a cursor on a display screen will begin to move from its present location according to controlling movement of the pointing device. On the other hand, a graphics tablet is usually used in an absolute mode, such that the cursor is positioned according to where a pen is placed on the tablet. For example, if the cursor is positioned at the lower right corner of the display screen and the user wishes it to be at the upper left corner, the user need only place the pen at the upper left corner of the tablet, and the cursor will “jump” to that position. That is, the user need not “drag” the cursor from the first position to the second.
It is well known in the art to use multiple display screens in many computing applications. The multiple displays might all be driven from the same computer device or, alternatively, they might each be driven by different computers all of which are under the control of the same user and user interface devices. Just one of many possible examples of such usage is found in computer aided design (“CAD”), graphics and/or video applications, wherein a user might have displayed on one screen the end product (a picture, drawings, moving video display, or the like) that is being acted upon. On another screen might be a menu of choices available for acting upon the end product, a command list, or the like. Such applications are, by no means, limited to the use of only two displays. One example might be where the user has a command screen, a “before” screen and an “after” screen, where the before and after screens show, respectively, an image both before and after a command has been executed upon it. Still another example might be a video application wherein one screen is used to show a first movie clip, a second screen to show a second movie clip, and a third screen to show a merged movie clip wherein a portion of the first movie clip is cut or faded into a portion of the second movie clip. As stated above, these are only a few of the many examples of applications wherein a plurality of display screens are, or could be, used to advantage by a single user.
Where multiple display screens are used, the user will wish to be able to control or access the data, image, or the like, that is displayed on each of the screens. Since the user has a limited number of hands, it is likely that the user would want to access all of the displays using a single absolute pointing device. Indeed, it is known and customary to use a single absolute pointing device in multiple display configurations. However, all known prior art methods of doing so have entailed some considerable limitations. For example, when an absolute pointing device (“APD”) is connected to a computing device, it is normally mapped to either the entire visible area (made up of all connected displays) or to a portion of the visible area (usually one of the connected displays). The APD is constantly mapped to the same area until explicitly changed by the user through a user definable setting.
It would be advantageous to have the entire sensitive area of a graphics tablet correspond to the entire area of a corresponding display screen. The larger the image of the display screen is on the sensitive area of the graphics tablet, the better will be the corresponding control resolution of the graphics tablet. Using a large area of the tablet gives the operator better control.
One prior art method of mapping two displays to a graphics tablet is illustrated in the diagrammatic view of FIG. 1. In the view of FIG. 1 it can be seen that a graphics tablet 10 has an active area 12. In the example of FIG. 1, the active area 12 is mapped to a first display screen area 14 and a second display screen area 16. The two display screen areas 14 and 16 correspond to two display screens (not shown in this view). This arrangement has the advantage that the operator has ready access to control either of the displays. However, it has the disadvantage that both of the display areas 14 and 16 are much smaller than optimal, thereby reducing the resolution and corresponding user control and accuracy. Indeed, much of the active area 12 is not used at all, and much of the available resolution of the graphics tablet 10 is wasted. Of course, the disadvantages of using this sort of method become even greater if it is required to map more than just two displays to the graphics tablet 10.
The second prior art method for mapping a graphics tablet 10 to a multi-display system is illustrated in the view of FIG. 2. In the view of FIG. 2 it can be seen that the entire active area 12 of the graphics tablet 10 is mapped to a single display (first display screen area 14 in this example). One advantage to such a mapping is that the entire active area 12 of the graphics tablet 10 is being utilized, and operator control of the active display screen is maximized. However, a drawback to this mapping is that the user cannot do any work on the second (or other additional) display without taking some specific action to switch the mapping of the graphics tablet 10. Any such action would generally need to be done with another input device such as a keyboard, a standard mouse, a trackball, or the like. Mapping the entire active area 12 to a single display can reduce the user's workflow, as the user must manually switch from one input device to another to work with different displays.
It would be advantageous to have some method or means whereby a user could map at least most of the entire display area of each of a plurality of displays to the active area 12 of the graphics tablet 10, and yet would not have to engage in an extra operation in repeatedly selecting a display. However, to the inventor's knowledge, no such method or apparatus has existed in the prior art.